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Boat Crash Claims 1,200 Jaguars – Could You Save One?

Imagine all the Jaguars on board that may never find homes

For sale:

Brand new Jaguar sports car, zero miles, never been driven. There’s no damage, and the price is a fraction of the cost of buying the same car brand new from a dealer. You won’t find a better deal anywhere!

Act fast and get one of the 1,200 available cars.

The catch?

The cars were once on board the nearly sunk Hoegh Osaka.

Maybe someday you’ll see an ad like that, but as of this writing, and probably for the next few months, the cars remain on the cargo ship that’s all over the Internet. Dramatic images show the massive ship stranded and tilted at a 50-degree angle.

It seems the captain of the ship faced a choice: either let the boat sink or run it aground on purpose to try and save the ship and its cargo.

The ship had 1,200 Jaguars and Land Rovers on board along with 65 MINIs, and one $400,000 Rolls-Royce Wraith.

The total value of all the cars is about $53 million. All of them will probably be scrapped.

To me, that’s far bigger news than the stranded ocean liner. There’s potentially no real damage to these cars, but the automakers will likely scrap them under insurance claims.

Believe it or not, there’s a precedent for events like this.

After a similar incident in the North Pacific in 2006, which was well documented by Car and Driver, more than 4,700 brand new Mazdas were scrapped after the ship carrying them, the Cougar Ace, tilted dangerously off the coast of Alaska.

Even though the cars were saved and many had no visible damage, the manufacturer sent them to the crusher to avoid potential legal action in the event of future problems. Mazda could have sold the cars to people willing to use them as racers or for parts, but it played things safe and simply erased them from the market.

I’ll tell you what—should the cars coming off the Hoegh Osaka ever be sold at auction for a discount, count me in on getting a piece of the action!

If they ever become available, would you want one of the cars that is stuck on the Hoegh Osaka?